Get Smarter on the Go

This Week

What to Work On Next

Jan 19th — Colleen gets her first paying customer! But what should she work on next, and which kinds of customers should she focus on?

One simple trick to grow a newsletter to 1+ million subscribers with Sam Parr from The Hustle

Jan 18th — About this episode: This week we have Sam Parr, the founder of The Hustle, a massively successful newsletter with over 1 million subscribers. In this episode, we're diving deep on The Hustle's main growth channels, how The Hustle got its first 150k subscribers, how Sam would grow a newsletter to 1 million subscribers today, optimizing the overlooked parts of your newsletter, and so much more.

The future of no-code

Jan 15th — This week, we talk about what the world of no-code looks like now that Webflow has raised a massive round of funding.

Making over $5k/month from a portfolio of side projects - Dan Rowden, ilo

Jan 15th — Today we're joined by Dan Rowden, who is an entrepreneur and product builder currently based in Mauritius. Dan, like many other indie hackers runs a bunch of projects alongside a full-time job, which all compound to him making over $5k a month with these projects. In this episode we talk about how Dan manages his time throughout his projects, why he hasn't gone full time yet and what he did when a $75k acquisition offer came along.

#188 – Fame, Focus, and Billions of Pageviews with Evan Britton of Famous Birthdays

Jan 14th — Evan Britton (@Evan_Britton) runs a massive website focused on digital celebrities called Famous Birthdays. It gets multiple billions of pageviews a year, has dozens of employees, and he bootstrapped it to profitability without raising a dime from investors. They key to Evan's approach is his laser focus. He says no to almost everything, including the most obvious of opportunities. Instead he prefers to "stay in his lane." He'd rather make one thing great than do a mediocre job at 4 or 5 different things. The story of how Evan made Famous Birthdays great is one of fame, focus, ambition, patience, and just a little bit of luck.

Aggregating the $9 Billion Micro-Mobility Industry with Ola Sars

Jan 14th — It’s frustrating to have to download multiple apps to rent an electric scooter. Listen as we discuss a business idea that allows users to rent any platform’s scooter from within one app.

Past Month

Wading Through Feature Requests

Jan 12th — Once you get your customers to talk to you, how do you sort through that and make sense of it? Colleen and Michele talk about how Jobs to Be Done thinking and tactics can be used at the very beginning to guide the roadmap and later on to guide overall strategy.

Turning $100 into $52,000 selling handmade candles DTC - Dianna Allen, TERRA

Jan 11th — How do you turn $100 into $52,000 in revenue selling candles? Well, Dianna Allen, previously of Budget Meal Planner fame, did exactly this. She's been so successful selling these candles that in October 2020, she went full time on her DTC brand, TERRA. In this episode, we talk about the steps she took to get here.

Newsletter Analytics Consultation

Jan 11th — About this episode: A few months ago I had the pleasure of meeting Blake Ellison on Twitter. He mentioned he runs an analytics service called Analysts Now and actually helped Kevin Conti, who was on episode 31, grow to over $10k MRR with his newsletter Softwareideas. I got Blake and a member of the Newsletter Crew community, Stefan from Alternative Assets, to hop on a call and analyze Stefan’s newsletter.

Run With It: Courtland Allen Shares 3 Ideas for Indie Hackers to Build a Profitable Business

Jan 8th — I hopped on the Run With It podcast with Chris and Eathan to share 3 business ideas for indie hackers to run with in 2021. Two are brand new, and one was inspired by my recent episode on bundling with Tyler King. Subscribe to Run With It: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/run-with-it-business-ideas-from-successful-entrepreneurs/id1477133536

What it's like to get DDoSed

Jan 7th — This week, we talk about a startup nightmare: What do you do when your website gets attacked?

A Platform for the Borrower's Economy with Ryan Frederick

Jan 7th — What if you could make money from the stuff lying around your house that you're not using? Ryan Frederick brings an idea for an app that would facilitate a community of lenders and borrowers of "stuff."

Getting People to Reply to Those Critical Early Feedback Emails

Jan 5th — Colleen and Michele dissect why people stopped replying to Colleen's welcome emails. Later, Michele dives into Jobs To Be Done.

Growing to 1+ million subscribers without spending any money with Maximilian Rofagha of Finimize

Jan 4th — About this episode: In this episode, I have the pleasure of talking with one of the most successful newsletter creators. Maximillian Rofagha of Finimize. Finimize has over 1 million subscribers and has expanded into a community and mobile app. We'll be discussing the best growth channels for your newsletter from 0 to 1k, 1k to 10k, and 10k to 100k subscribers. We're also going to dive into Finnimize's newsletter format and why Maximillian chose to structure in that fashion.

End of 2020 mega-episode

Dec 31st — This week, we talk look back at 2020, look ahead to 2021, and make some predictions.

YC Alum Shares Three Business Ideas for 2021

Dec 31st — YC Alum and Founder of Indie Hackers, Courtland Allen maintains one of the best pulses on business trends and opportunities. Listen to Courtland share three business ideas that are ready to launch in 2021.

#187 – Building a $38k/Month SaaS Business as a Solo Founder with Jordan O'Connor of Closet Tools

Dec 31st — Jordan O'Connor (@jdnoc) is one of the more impressive solo founders I've had on the podcast. Saddled with student loan debt and eager to take care of his growing family, Jordan embarked on a years-long journey to learn as much as he could and help everyone in his path. In this episode, we talk about how he developed the skills to build a $38,000/month SaaS business all on his own, and the importance of understanding that not only *can* your business help people, but it *has* to in order to succeed.

Competing with Huge Companies as a Bootstrapper

Dec 29th — Michele talks about how the entry of a huge company into the geocoding space impacts their business strategy.

What makes a successful newsletter with Ernie Smith of Tedium

Dec 28th — About this episode: This week we have Ernie Smith, a veteran in the newsletter space. Ernie has been running his newsletter Tedium for over six years and is also the founder of the Newsletter Nerds Facebook group. In this episode, we discuss what makes a newsletter successful, his newsletter tech stack, and the future of newsletters.

Should your startup donate to charity?

Dec 24th — This week, we talk whether startups should donate a portion of their profits to charity.

Audio-Driven Workouts with Colin McIntosh

Dec 24th — It’s tough to come up with and follow exercise routines by yourself. YouTube and Instagram videos aren’t good solutions. Listen to Colin McIntosh describe a business idea to create a workout-centered podcast platform. If you like the show, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts!

#186 – Indie Hacker Ideas for Bundling (and Unbundling!) with Tyler King of Less Annoying CRM

Dec 24th — Tyler King (@TylerMKing) and I discuss how indie hackers can take advantage of the current cycle of bundling and unbundling. What is bundling, anyway? Why does it present an opportunity for new business ideas? How can fledgling founders take part in what seems like a game for big companies? And who's already doing a good job of this?

Getting Really Excited

Dec 22nd — Colleen shares the findings from her customer interviews, and Michele talks about how behavioral economics influences how they think about free tier abuse.

All about Newsletter Directories with Nick Frost

Dec 21st — About this episode: This week we have Nick Frost, the expert on newsletter directories. Nick runs two of the most popular newsletter directories, newsletters.co and inboxstash.com. We've been hearing a lot of questions about what newsletter directories are, what they're used for, why you should submit to them, and what benefits they provide. So we wanted to bring Nick on and have him answer them all.

Earlier

Product Market Fit

Dec 17th — This week, we answer a listener question about product market fit.

#185 – How Courtland Allen Built Indie Hackers, with Ben and David from Acquired

Dec 17th — I've been procrastinating sharing my own story on the Indie Hackers podcast for years now. But when Ben and David (the co-hosts of the Acquired podcast) asked if they could interview me, it was impossible to put it off any longer. They're among the best podcast storytellers I know, so before you do anything, search for "Acquired" in your podcast player and subscribe to their excellent show! In this episode, Ben and David walk through my entire startup history, including my early childhood and college years. We talk about the creation of Indie Hackers, how I got it off the ground, and deep dive on the Stripe acquisition. I hope you enjoy it!

Is The Next Shopify A SaaS Boilerplate Service?

Dec 17th — Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies spend ~30% of developer time on common problems like user account management. Listen to George Deglin describe an idea to build a Shopify-like platform for SaaS businesses.

How Pat Walls made $20k in 2 weeks from his SEO course - Pat Walls, Starter Story

Dec 16th — In this episode, Pat Walls, founder of Starter Story is sharing how he made 20k in pre-sales on his new SEO course in just 2 weeks.

When Competitors Are Nipping At Your Heels

Dec 15th — No description

Growing a newsletter to 100k+ subscribers with Codie Sanchez of Contrarian Thinking

Dec 14th — About this episode: This week we have Codie Sanchez, a successful newsletter creator who runs multiple newsletters. Her most popular being Contrarian Thinking, which currently has over 100k subscribers. In this episode, we're going to discuss the exact steps she took to get her newsletter from 0 to 50k subscribers and how you can go from 0 to 10k subscribers in 30 days.

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